Still undefeated

Three third-period goals and the Caps coasted to a 5-2 win against the Hurricanes. Michael Nylander and Alex Ovechkin each added another tally, and Chris Bourque put in a rebound. Daren Machesney didn’t see much work in his 20 minutes, but he turned aside the three shots he did face.

“It is stuff you can’t control,” Machesney said. “To be honest, when you go into a game that’s already going on, you want some work right away just to get into it because you’ve been sitting on the bench for an hour or so. It was kind of the opposite of that.”

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Bourque lifted a stick that helped Chris Clark gain the puck and feed Nylander. Toss in the pass to Ovechkin that led to his penalty shot and Bourque’s two actual points and the guy had a hand in four goals tonight by my count.

“I’m just trying to do the little things to help the team win,” Bourque said. “Whether it is lifting a stick or passing to Alex — actually that’s probably the best thing to do.”

Added Caps coach Bruce Boudreau: “He was good. That little guy, it looks like he found his step tonight. I’ve asked him to find his step and he looked like he was pretty quick. One thing about Chris is he’s always competed really hard his whole life. I thought he played pretty solid tonight.”

The chippy play from the second period continued into the third period. Let’s just say Tim Conboy, should he make the Hurricanes roster, might want to be on the lookout the next time these teams meet. Trying to scuffle with Alex Ovechkin and Chris Clark probably won’t be forgotten.

Boudreau said he wanted to get Alex, Alex and Mike Green out of the game after they went up 5-2 to avoid any silly stuff, but he put them back in to work on the penalty-killing skills late in the game. Semin got the puck and put on a show by skating around people on a couple of occasions.